Gil Birmingham, Chaske Spencer, Julia Jones, Boo Stewart, and Justin Chon all appear in this PSA that is trying to raise awareness of the devastating plight of those on the Lakota Sioux, South Dakota Reservation. Theirs is an interesting approach as you’ll see in the video. They don’t need your money; what they need is for you to pick up the phone and call your congressperson or write to them.

About 10 different Twilight fansites had a phone interview with Anna and Mike. The questions are from the following websites: Twilight Examiner, Twilight Series Theories, Twilight Facebook, Twilight Moms, His Golden Eyes, Twilighters, Twilighters Anonymous, Twilight Superfan, Twilight Source/Imprint, Bella and Edward, Twilight Lexicon.

Q: In New Moon you have a kind of love triangle going on. I’m curious to see how that ended up playing out for you.M: There are a couple of different love triangles there. There’s obviously the one between Bella and Jacob and Edward that Mike is trying to squeeze into. More of a love rectangle. And I guess there’s the one between Mike and Jessica and Bella. You know, Jessica likes Mike. Mike likes Bella. Everybody likes Bella. And it sort of doesn’t turn out great for Mike or Jessica. A lot of this is very indicative of high school heart ache in general, but it’s sort of heightened with these supernatural characters.Q: Both of you have a background in theatre. I wanted to know how that has helped you with your roles for Twilight and New Moon?A: Well on a logistical note, there was a scene when Jessica and Bella go to the movies, when we were shooting that outside there were like hundreds of girls standing and watching as we shot it. It was just a nice tool to have experience in front of a live audience. It seems like a silly comparison, but honestly it helped to kind of block out the fact that all these fans were watching us and to try to just focus on the scene and ignore the fact that they’re all kind of videotaping us from the side lines.

Q: What was your favorite scene to shoot?Mike: My favorite scene by far was the kind of three way date that happened between Mike and Bella and Jacob. That horribly awkward moment when Mike asks Bella out to the movies and she tries to turn it into a group thing and then it ends up being the worst case scenario which is that that three way thing. You know, I’m sure it was certainly not a lot of fun for Mike to go through. I mean, I can relate, as I’m sure a lot of us can, but it was a lot of fun to do.Anna: And I would have to say that there is a scene where Jessica and Bella go to the movies. That was fun because Jessica really likes to talk about herself and Bella is really depressed. She’s not saying much. We were just kind of trying to do it all in one take, and Chris told me to just keep talking until we came to a natural stop. So I stopped and just kind of monologued as flighty, silly Jessica which was a blast.Q: Does having different directors and different visions for different movies cause any confusion for how you should play your character? Mike: I think that the directors that we’ve had are very different in terms of style and process, but there seems to be a singular vision in terms of our characters. Everyone seems to be pretty unanimous about it, and that basically is that we are there to add levity to the franchise and to just represent normalcy in Bella’s life. Represent just kind of a real high school experience to give the story some grounding so that people are able to believe the more supernatural fantasy elements.

Q: You talked about the monologueing. Can you give us some examples of ad-libbing that you were able to do?Anna: Well, I don’t want to give anything away. Honestly, we were doing these takes where I just had to keep talking to fill space. So I am wondering what exactly it was that I ended up saying just as much as anybody. So I’m looking forward to seeing it and finding out because I have almost no idea what I ended up saying.Q: You guys are both so great about adding that comedic element into the movies. You both seem to be able to say a thousand words with your facial expressions. So I was just curious who were your comedic inspirations as actors?

Mike: Well, for me the whole reason I became an actor was because of Jim Carrey. I probably watched Ave Ventura Pet Detective a thousand times as a kid. Man, other than that, a lot of comedic inspiration and actors… guys like… I’m just going to stick with Jim Carrey for now because he sort of jump started the whole thing for me.

Anna: I would have to say Parker Posey has been a favorite of mine for a long time and all the players involved in Christopher Guest films. But then at the same time more traditional ladies of comedy, you know, the Tina Fey and Kristen Wiigs of the world are very inspirational, I think, as far as women in comedy go.

Q: New Moon is definitely a darker film, but can we expect the same humor that we got form your characters in Twilight?Anna: I hope so. I hope that we add some humor, that certainly was the goal. The films do get darker but the scripts seem to include a little bit for the humans to do, as Mike said, to kind of add a realism and a grounding point for a franchise that is set in a fantasy world.Mike: Yeah. What’s a lot of fun for me is that the high school kids really are very isolated from the rest of the story, so even if the overall tone does get more intense as we go along, our role really doesn’t change in that respect.

Q: This question is for Anna. Melissa Rosenburg, the screen writer, said that she wrote your role kind of as a combination of Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory. I was wondering if you keep that in mind or do you just kind of stick with Jessica’s mind set.Anna: I have heard that and I know that she wrote some elements in to incorporate both characters. I know that they are both kind of the alpha female mean girls of the novels. One thing about my playing this role was that I felt like the only real way for me to play a girl who, in spite all accounts, should really be tall, thin, and blonde, was just kind of make it really desperate and needy and just a girl who is constantly trying to be liked, and comes of a little pathetic doing it. So I know that elements of both of those characters are incorporated into the script. I think the humans have a little more leeway in terms of how we play our characters. It really only made sense to play it a little awkward and a little desperate. But really, underneath it all, that’s really what those girls are. It made sense for me. That may be what it is on paper, but there’s only so much I can do to make it kind of mean girl-y.Q: What’s the most rewarding things that you’ve been able to do with the fame that you’ve achieved from Twilight. If it’s charitable or something with a fan. What’s the most memorable experience due to your fame from Twilight.

Mike: One of the things that I – well really it was a mutual decision that my family and I made really early on is to be committed to some kind of charity work as a way of just keeping me grounded and keeping a good perspective while working in the entertainment industry. So I have been working with an organization called “Kids With a Cause” for a number of years and we’ve done a lot of really great work. It’s sort of in transition right now. With this franchise – with Twilight specifically I was able to raise a decent amount of money for “Kids With a Cause” that went to help feed a lot of kids. We go down to orphanages in Mexico quite often and bring a lot of supplies and things that they may need. You know, generally it’s not really charity if you talk about it, but it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience. And that aspect of it – I wouldn’t trade for anything.[Read more…]

The Calgary Herald has an interview with perhaps the most underlooked people in the Twilight Saga franchise: Team Human.

“Sure, New Moon’s vampires and werewolves may get all the attention, but it’s Bella’s gang of high school friends who keep the movie centered in reality. Anna Kendrick, Michael Welch, Justin Chon and Christian Serratos (who play Jessica, Mike, Eric and Angela, respectively) talk about providing the franchise’s comic relief and keeping it real as mortals amongst all the supernatural shenanigans.”

Check out what Justin Chon, Anna Kendrick, Mike Welch and Christian Serratos had to say.

The Asian pop culture and current happenings website Ningin talked to Justin Chon about his upcoming plans and life since Twilight.

“JI: Cool deal. So, has life here changed for you since Twilight happened?

JC: Life — I mean, in some ways, yeah. Like I get to travel a lot. Ya know, once in awhile I get recognized for something. But uh, yeah, I’ve been traveling a lot. In the last year I got to go to Paris, uh Spain, France…(laughs)haha Paris is in France, London, Florida, Korea, New York, Vancouver, Washington, Arizona, Australia, Chicago –twice…I think that’s it.

JI: Of those places, which place did you enjoy the most?

JC: Paris. Ya know what, I honestly thought I wouldn’t love Mona, I’d love Italy but uh…that’s not the case. I thought the French in France would be a bunch of high-nosed rude people, but that’s not the case. If you’re overly nice to them, they treat you with just as much respect. I think they’re just used to American people coming in and poo-poo-ing on sh**. And uh, they just don’t like that. So if you’re really nice, they’re nice to you. The thing I love about Paris was that it’s big city, but it has a really calm attitude. Everyone is just really chill and quiet. Not wild,
JI: Or frantic…

JC: Which I also love! But at the same time it’s fast paced. The subway doors opens before the car even stops — you get to where you’re going and once you get there, you relax. And I really like how everyone is into their own thing and not staring you. I remember I was on the train and some girls were screaming a song — no one gave a sh**. They just let them be teenagers, and no one was trying to reprimand them. Well, people laughed but it was awesome.”

The folks over at the Examiner had the chance to catch an interview with Edi Gathegi, Justin Chon, and Gil Birmingham this last weekend when the guys were in Orlando for the Fantasy TwiLife convention. You can read the entire interview here.

Q: And what kind of motivates you guys to do the conventions as opposed to some of your other colleagues who don’t choose to?

Justin: Um, I think it’s fun, and you get to go somewhere that maybe you haven’t been before. I mean, I haven’t been to Orlando in so long, and I’ve gotten to go to Europe twice. That’s pretty awesome … and meet people who actually want to talk to you.

Edi: You’re like loved as soon as you walk in the door.

Justin: That’s a good feeling.

Gil: Oh, I just love the fans. The fans are the best part of it. Just to have interaction and hear their stories and how involved they are with the series. There’s some fabulous stories I’ve heard and I’m completely touched by it. And from that way, it makes things all really worthwhile.

Q: What kind of motivates you guys to do the conventions?

Justin: Um, I think it’s fun, and you get to go somewhere that maybe you haven’t been before. I mean, I haven’t been to Orlando in so long, and I’ve gotten to go to Europe twice. That’s pretty awesome … and meet people who actually want to talk to you.

Edi: You’re like loved as soon as you walk in the door.

Justin: That’s a good feeling.

Gil: Oh, I just love the fans. The fans are the best part of it. Just to have interaction and hear their stories and how involved they are with the series. There’s some fabulous stories I’ve heard and I’m completely touched by it. And from that way, it makes things all really worthwhile.

They also have a great write up about Gil Birmingham’s music as well as a few videos of him performing some of his original music and jamming with the guys from Nova Echo.

Various cast members swung by the pre-Emmy Awards parties and swag rooms this weekend.

Melissa Rosenberg had this to say about Breaking Dawn when asked by Marc Malkin over at E!

“First up, Breaking Dawn. Rosenberg is not allowed to could not confirm she’s going to be tackling the script. “That’s still up in the air,” she said. “We’re still talking and nothing’s been decided.”

Rachelle Lefevre told E!

“To be honest, I sort of feel like I have everything. I have an amazing boyfriend, I love my house, I’m wearing a great Jay Godfrey dress and I’m at an Emmy party.”

Justin Chon Spoke about David Slade

“He’s done pretty dark films so that’s where I see [Eclipse] really gravitating towards—more of a dark kind of moody film. Just shooting the scenes that I’m in, the mood is definitely different. David is very set on how he wants this movie to be portrayed. It’s a lot more refined and maybe not as loose as the last two—at least for us humans. I can only imagine what he’s doing with everyone else.”